This show is mind-blowingly good. One of my favorites I've heard so far.

Wow, This is my 2nd listen to this and I just love it. The Alligator sets the tone for what is just a great and seriously extended set one.
I am actually listening to the Miller soundboard so not commenting on the sound for this recording.
I do like the Spanish Jam it is the lead-up to all those cowboy tunes that they would eventually cover.
Love the way they roll into the Dark Star!

What a fun Dark Star!
Dark Star is no longer a "fun" song by the 70's, by then it had turned into a complete and utter journey of mind and sound.

Check for track info.

The NPC, BCE & Spanish are not quite 1/20/68 hot, but Wow ! Amazing to have another slice from the same week ! It feels so close to where they probably were two nights earlier + Alligator, an early lyric TOO, a more complete DS, China > 11. Seriously ? Nothing less than 5*****
1/20 is my ATF but this is so close, like a side 2 if you will ! Hot damn :)

Outstanding! Maybe best ever Alligator? Best ever Spanish Jam? The rest is REAL good. Interesting lyrics in The Other One.
If only Clementine was in there.

Great show, but it breaks my heart not to have the entire Caution! Bill is so on and it sounds like they were really going somewhere. It was one of the only times I have REALLY been able to hear the "sound of train tracks" that inspired the show. Other highlights include a great Alligator and some very satisfying Feedbacks.

Or one of my favorites. Mickey playing conga drums, Jerry soaring beautifully. Those Alligators that played by themselves without going into Caution were sublime. See 5/5/67, 8/5/67 and 9/3/67 and you'll see what I mean. Someone mentioned Cipollina and Betts earlier. I hear Santana. Maybe it's just cause of the conga drums but Jerry's solo on New Potato Caboose reminds me of Se Acabo. Oh and by the way, I used to consider this the weakest New Potato. Not anymore. It's been considerably upgraded. That's It For The Other One is ok. Nothing to write home about. The usual garage band solos from Garcia long before those drum solos. I had to laugh at Bobby's early lyrics though. "I could not think or spell my name or fly. There was no way." Uh ha ha ha. What? I don't really care if the middle of Born Cross-Eyed is missing. Nothing beats the studio version. The live versions are always slop-minster. The Spanish Jam is very stylish. Let's see. Been about a year since I heard the show and I have yet to listen to the rest of it. As I recall, it's not as good as the first six songs but the Feedback is worth listening too. I remember that much. 5 stars for the most original Alligator I've ever heard. Otherwise it would get 3 stars.

Its wild. I hear a Cippolina influence in Jerry's playing I never noticed before. Insane vibrato. Ah the loud rock band era. One of my favorite tours of their career for sure.

i don't think this show is quite as strong as the 20th or 23rd, both in execution and jamming quality, but there are some very nice moments to be found, including a long, unique, and exploratory Alligator, an incredible New Potato, and explosive versions of Cross-eyed, Spanish Jam and China Cat...another gem from early '68!

Where is Pigpen during this night? I mean I hear his organ & he's destroying this recording(in a good way) but unless that guys grunting and telling people to "Get your hands out of your pockets!" then I'm not hearing Pig doing his thing, you know what I mean? Bobby on the other hand- woo hoo, I think somebody better get him a bucket o water, cause that sh@t's on fire. He really surprises me when I listen closely-Pig too, he's truckin' along keeping it together- but imagine if he'd been an acid freak like the rest of 'em? The guy might have played differently-don't know.
Being partial to the guitar thing, being a guitarist as I am, Jerry is a worker and he's always working to find a new note to put into the strangest spots. Phil & Bill(sounds funny) have an odd rhythmical connection, unusual and perhaps more innovative than many realize-I think they function best when they don't listen to each other-maybe that's the wrong way to put it-they certainly have a better connection when Bill keeps out of Phil's busy busy bass like during Caution, they just gel back together around 3:00min in, before that they were kind of dancing around each other but never quite solidifying- whatever you call it- they're brilliant on this fine evening in January 1968. I guess from here on the Jams become somewhat like a blizzard and crazy like a tempest. The feedback, for me, can be nothing less than the most profound way to communicate any idea, image, or information, because the chaos bleeds right through my brain something like a cross between a thousand trains all pulling into the station at once, nails on a chalk board & the echo of some planet in our solar system being destroyed- and the analogies are endless I'm sure.

Though it doesnt quite reach the dizzying heights of 1/20, this show is very special nonetheless!
Another en-suite masterpiece, with pretty much non-stop intensity from the opening notes of the mind-blowing Alligator through Caution. The segues are all extremely well jammed as the band is clearly on the same roll as the previous performance. This phenomenal show is certainly a top ten of 1968!

I’ve listened to every show that Archive offers from 1965 to this show, and this one is just not as good as many of them here. It’s not as smooth, tight, or energetic as other shows from this month or these few months. A lot of sloppy vocals, and the jamming has some nice bits, the transitions aren’t as good as in other shows.
Alligator doesn’t have the energy of others from this period. (Check out the Alligator of 67-08-05 here at Archive.org, for instance.)
What is called Space here is actually an introspective Spanish Jam prelude – inventive, and one of the places where the band is playing its best in this show. This and the Spanish Jam, as well as the final feedback, are the most inspired parts of the show.
Jerry delivers weak vocals on Dark star and China Cat compared to others of this time (such as 1/17/68). Dark Star was only a couple of months old at this point. China Cat and The Eleven were five days old. Jerry stops playing for a bit at the beginning of the Eleven. Sloppy entrance of vocals. The Eleven seems to get stuck in several places, and the transition into Caution is not as smooth as others of this period.
Feedback fans will like the finale of the show, which starts with wild psychedelia, fades to nothing, and rises from the Dead, so to speak. Another show highlight.
All things are relative: this show is still 4 stars because of spots of brilliance, and is miles above some of the really bad performances of the late 1980’s and 1990s (and even some klunkers in the ‘70’s). Definitely worth a listen, but check out some of the other offerings from the Anthem era. (Don’t forget the fall 1967 shows.) Try also the excellent Dick’s Picks Volume 22, 2/23/68, Kings Beach Lake Tahoe.

Yeah - what they all say below ... it's true ... every word of it.
~ Let the good times roll

mindblowing. seriously

Good stuff, classic from this period.

Alligator is high quality! Spanish jam (idea taken from a miles davis tune) is incredible and everything after that is great jamming the 68 darkstar-chinacat-eleven is groovin great jamming

im usually dissapointed by 68 dead, i mean don't get me wrong it's always good to check out for hisotrical reasons but in 68 the dead weren't that tight yet, however that is not the case here, the feedback>spanish jam>Darstar>China Cat ect. will blow your mind

first a question that i'm hoping someone can help with...is there a harmony part happening in this dark star? sounds like an occasional high harmony (phil?)...is there any precedent for a harmony vocal in a dark star verse? it's tough because of the mix, i suppose it could just be a reverberation of some sort but i swear i hear a counter-melody in there...
anyways, the rest of this show is everything i adore about '68, and the sound is excellent. opening with alligator is a righteous move and i wish it happened more. cryptical reprise>caboose is always a favorite of mine, as is dark star>china cat...the shows with those transitions are always among my favorites. far out indeed!

I've said all that needs to be said here folks. The China Cat> Eleven transition has literal 1972 sofistication to it. Just get this. 5 stars without thinking twice.

This is my favorite Spanish Jam yet, hands down. The one from Tahoe 2/23 (Dick's 22), though nearly as long, never rises even close to these heights of energy & color. This leads nicely into Dark Star. Far-out effect on Jerry's voice. Great setlist, they've got all their early psychedelic pieces in place at this point, but as someone said below, they're still a garage band--so it's fun as well as intense.
Pigpen's organ is a fully equal musical voice in these days, no "laying out" here--he even participates in the final Feedback. Love it.
Great 16-minute Alligator to open!, and, rarely, they visit all the parts heard on Anthem (by Tahoe, they weren't vocalizing the "Alligator!" chorus anymore).
These early Other One lyrics are funny; just as acid-oriented, but more over-obviously so ("...my head was not in sight/I would ask the walls about it, but they vanished overnite"). The changes were a good thing, I think.
My only lament is not having the complete Born Cross-eyed or Caution, which on my copy both have their middle sections spliced out. Especially too bad on the Caution, since what's here sounds so great; I'm guessing there was a full vocal by Pigpen in actuality. But we enjoy what we have, and are grateful~ classic stuff. Even Feedback is engaging from start to finish.
Solar Jeremy, you're a lucky man. Thanks for sharing, it's always a special treat to encounter the people who were the audience at these mythical shows, especially when you can remember it so clearly AND are still on the bus.....!
Sound quality is quite good, slightly bassy but all instruments are heard clearly.

Bobby sings early lytics to the song. Check out the page for The Other One at Alex Allan's page for more info: http://www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/intro.htm

I bought the first Dead album in '67 and went to this show thinking I was going to hear "Sittin' On Top of the World" or some such. What a surprise to experience this! I remember wanting to applaud after every tune, but the "music never stopped" and I thought that this was so odd. The feedback was a trip! We sat for quite awhile not sure if the show was over or not, and then the feedback would start up again. This show forever established in my 16 year-old mind what SF psychedlic music should sound like, right down to how the Dead played to the ambiance of the hall. When "Anthem" was released later in the year, I memorized the entire record. I can still play the whole thing back in my mind. Now that's some kind of magic!

This show is unbelievable. Why have more people not commented? This is such classic late 60's dead and is the absolute apex of the garage band dead. You must listen to this, download it, and enjoy the raw energy of the band before they refined their sound and before they became so "folky" in the early 70's.

I love this show. Excellent "Alligator" and a real nice Cryptical->Other One->Cryptical.
But I do have one question. Can someone shed some light on the lyrics of the first verse of this particular version of "The Other One?" They are completely different from the usual lyrics. The only line I recognize is "But the heat come round and busted me for smiling on a cloudy day."

This is one of the shows listed on Anthem as part of the live mix. The several shows that contribute to Anthem's mix are this group's Mt. Everest. They push themselves to the edge, and then over it. Bea-yooootiful.
As for the "uneven" aspects of their performance, don't forget, Jerry was probably tripping his brains out (who else?? not Pig!), which for me makes the erratic... ecstatic.

This show has some golden moments as well as some drifts and mis-directions, one of the best moments is the opening Alligator which is a 5 star quality. Maybe its because this show is the second night of their first Northwest tour, but they really have fun with this Alligator. The vocals are mixed weak on the Dark Star and after Jerry 'opens the door' to the Spanish Jam, I think he finds he has little to say on this night except when he mirrors the
Duane Allman riffs, which is always a cool thing.
I tend to reserve the 5 star rating for only the most excellent shows with excellent sound quality, like 3/2/69. This would be a 4 except for the weak vocals in the mix and some parts of the jam that did not become the color the boys intended. Still, its worth having.

the boys really have fun on this Aligator & the jam afterward...each one of them...particularly Bobby & Jerry. personally I think this may be the quintessential aligator, & its nice sound quality, too

The second Feedback here was used in Anthem Of The Sun, not Live Dead. The feedback from Live Dead came from March 2, 1969.

The second version of Feedback was later included in "Live Dead."

From hard rockin' to ultra psychedelic with very agile transitions, the unit is firing on all cylinders and this is an all-time standout.
Magical moments abound. At about the 3/4 mark in Alligator, during a tentative exploratory part of the jam, Garcia casually invents the Dickey Betts vocabulary and goes on to develop it further in the Other One. Potato Caboose is sublime with an incredible transition into Cross Eyed. Or the point that China Cat kicks into overdrive and rages until a seamless segue into a boiling Eleven.
Very good audio quality for early '68 despite some gaps and splices.
You need this one.